Free Will Astrology

Free Will Astrology Week of September 3

By Rob Brezsny

ARIES (March 21-April 19): Your assignment is to get angry in the most unique, brilliant and constructive way possible. Merely being annoyed and muttering generic curses will definitely not be sufficient. Nor will it work for you to get consumed in knee-jerk rage or to be peeved about the same old boring targets that everyone reacts to. What the cosmos needs from you this week, Aries, is a controlled explosion of liberated, compassionate, laser-sharp fury that will fuel your ingenious drive to change everything for the better.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Are you having intense cravings for candy? Do you find yourself leaning in the direction of sappy emotions and syrupy words? That's what my astrological projections suggest. And if that's indeed the case, I'd like to steer you in a different direction. It's not that an extravagant involvement in chocolate and sentimentality is wrong or bad. But what you truly need, in my opinion, is a more muscular, provocative sweetness. A wilder, more vibrant sweetness. A sweetness that can smash obstacles and incite high magic.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): I won't protest if you try to conceal yourself from bullies or gossips or critics or narcissists. You have cosmic permission to hunker down and keep a low profile. But please don't hide from yourself. In fact, I encourage you to make yourself extra available to yourself. Listen respectfully to the questions and comments that your shadow murmurs in your inner ear. Be eager to tune in to the messages your body is longing to tell you. These communications might sometimes be a minor pain in the ego, but the long-term benefits to your soul could be substantial.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): I have tuned in to your yearning for resolution, O Seeker. I know that your heart fervently wants the riddles to run their course, the mysteries to be revealed, the uncertainties to be quelled. And I have ransacked my imagination in search of what consolation I might provide to appease your quest for neat, simple truths. But what I have concluded, O In-Between One, is that any solutions I might try to offer you would not only be fake, but also counterproductive. What you actually need, I suspect, are not answers to your urgent questions, but rather, better questions; more precisely formulated questions; more ruthlessly honest questions. Dig deeper, please. Open wider. Think fatter.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): No one knew there was coal in the United States until 1790. A hunter who was wandering near Pennsylvania's Broad Mountain stumbled upon it accidentally when his campfire lit up an outcropping of pure anthracite. That discovery was both a blessing and a curse; since then, the mining of coal has yielded abundant energy but also environmental degradation. I predict a metaphorically similar event for you in the coming days, Leo. You will inadvertently find a potentially enormous source of valuable fuel that will, like coal, present you with both rich opportunities and knotty dilemmas.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): I dare you to say “Yes” to a possibility you've said “No” to in the past. I double dare you to try an impossible thing before lunch each day. I triple dare you to imagine you're a genius at inspiring people to like you and help you. I quadruple dare you to drive overly stable people crazy for all the right reasons. I quintuple dare you to fantasize that your so-called delusions of grandeur have begun to contain more than a few grains of truth.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): I know a 19-year-old woman who has been going through an especially vivid phase of living on the edge between yes and no. She told me that yesterday morning she woke up with the feeling that in the next 12 hours she could either commit suicide or else perform some epic deed in which she surpassed all of her previous limits. She chose the latter path, completing an 18-mile bike ride that tested her endurance and drove her into the heights of exhilaration. As she pedaled, she drove herself onward with the throbbing thought that this was a perfect way to silence the self-destructive voice within her. I offer her victory to you, Libra, as being worthy of imitation.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Let's take inventory of your harvest, Scorpio. What blossomed for you these past months? Which of the seeds you planted last March and April sprouted into ripe, succulent blossoms? Which seeds grew into hard, spiky clumps? And what about weeds, pests and predators? Were you tireless about keeping them away from your beauties? Finally, what did you learn about growing things that could give you a green thumb when you cultivate your seeds in the next cycle?

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Before she became a rock goddess, Gwen Stefani cleaned the floors at an ice cream parlor. Prior to ascending to stardom, Ellen DeGeneres was an oyster shucker, Keanu Reeves worked a janitor and Brad Pitt performed as a giant chicken mascot. As for me, my gig as an internationally syndicated astrologer was not my first. Among many other things, I washed enough pots and pans in cheap restaurants to fulfill my dishwashing karma for my next five incarnations. I hope these examples serve to inspire you, Sagittarius. Even during the down economy, the next six months will provide you with ripe astrological conditions for upgrading your job. And the coming weeks will be prime time to brainstorm about how to go about it.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): I know some brave pioneers who make responsible use of psychotropic drugs as they map out the borderlands of consciousness. I'm glad they're doing that work, but my path is different. I don't indulge in marijuana, LSD, ayahuasca or psilocybin. However, my many years of doing meditation, dream work and various spiritual practices have nevertheless transformed me into a radical mystic with some of the same knowledge that the psychedelic experimenters have. Keep that disclaimer in mind as you ruminate on my advice for you, which is this: Blow your own mind, baby. Raise your expectations, supercharge your fantasy life and make forays out into the frontiers. Get high in ways that are appropriate to your ethical code.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): I love the new neighborhood I just moved to. It's insanely eclectic. Modern suburban-like homes with impeccable emerald-green lawns stand right next door to bedraggled ’50s-style ranch houses with unfinished plywood for garage doors and high brown weeds blanketing the front yards. A rusty mustard-yellow 1977 Cadillac Seville sporting a McCain-Palin bumper sticker is parked on the street next to a shiny 2007 Volvo with a sticker that advises, "Be the change you want to see in the world." Aging rednecks with fishing gear scattered in the driveway live next door to hipster musicians who blast psychedelic folk songs from their garage rehearsal space. I urge you to hang out in places like this in the coming weeks: where diversity rules, where the pigeonholes are exploded, where variety is not just the spice of life but the main course.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): The month of August brought you some peculiar advances. You got a reward that didn't mean as much to you as it might have had you received it earlier. You outgrew an enigma that had puzzled and frustrated you forever. And you finally wriggled free of a shadowy game that you had been attached to long after it lost its power to educate you. As curious as these wistful breakthroughs have been, they are prologue to what's headed your way. Get ready to solve a problem you didn't even know you loved.

Go to RealAstrology.com to check out Rob Brezsny’s expanded weekly audio horoscopes and daily text message horoscopes. The audio horoscopes are also available by phone at (877) 873-4888 or (900) 950-7700.